France's embattled Socialist government survived a vote of no-confidence on Thursday over its decision to force a controversial labour reform bill though parliament. The motion brought by the centre-right opposition Les Republicains party won 246 votes in the National Assembly, falling short of the 288 required to bring down the government. The draft law will now be debated in the Senate. As thousands once again protested against the proposals across France, the government succeeded in ramming through a reform that is aimed at loosening up France's notoriously rigid labour market.
Many unions and students say the reform is stacked in favour of employers and will do little to address France's jobless rate, which is stuck at 10 percent, and nearly 25 percent for young people. Unions and student groups marched on Thursday in Paris and other cities including Marseille, Nantes and Toulouse, as they have done regularly since the government put forward the reform two months ago. Violence broke out at a protest in the capital when masked youths clashed with demonstrators and journalists. Riot police had left the scene shortly beforehand.
Windows and advertising panels were smashed at the railway station in the western city of Nantes and the local offices of the Socialist Party were ransacked in the northern port of Le Havre. The CGT union said 50,000 people demonstrated in Paris, but police said no more than 12,500 took part. The government's decision on Tuesday to force through the adoption of the reform has been widely seen as an admission of failure as the deeply unpopular President Francois Hollande grapples with a decision over whether to seek re-election.
Hollande chose to push through the legislation without parliament's approval by using special executive powers following months of fierce opposition. The move also laid bare a gaping rift in the Socialist Party as rebel MPs had threatened to doom the legislation in parliament. On the right, meanwhile, the reform is seen as too timid - mocked as "a shadow of its former self" - after waves of angry street protests forced the government to make numerous concessions.
The no-confidence motion was considered highly unlikely to succeed because Socialist rebels and Green lawmakers refused to back the opposition. Rebel Socialist MPs tried to launch their own motion to bring down the government, but fell short by just two votes. Prime Minister Manuel Valls said the labour reform was "indispensable" and accused the rebel Socialists of failing in their duty to govern the country. "I will not let French social democracy be destroyed," he said in an impassioned speech.
The stand-off over the labour reform is just the latest headache for the president, coming hot on the heels of his failed attempt to change the constitution in the wake of the November 13 terror attacks on Paris. All of this comes less than a year from the 2017 presidential election. Hollande, facing some of the lowest popularity scores of any left-wing French president, has said he will decide by the end of the year whether to stand for re-election.
Fresh protests are set for Saturday, with student leader William Martinet warning: "The government will not succeed in silencing young people." CGT leader Philippe Martinez called for demonstrations to "switch into a higher gear", telling the far-left daily Humanite: "Workers seem to have decided to commit to a hard-line movement."
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